By David Owen
July 7 – And so, with just four of the 64 matches remaining, Brazil 2014 has come down, as one always suspected it might, to a duel between the two biggest brands and the two confederations whose top teams have monopolised the World Cup trophy for 84 years.
Both semi-finals are heavyweight clashes between Nike and Adidas, UEFA and CONMEBOL. First, on Tuesday Brazil (Nike) take on Germany (Adidas) in Belo Horizonte; then a day later Argentina (Adidas) play Holland (Nike) in São Paulo.
If you count 1950, the four semi-finalists have a tally of 21 World Cup final appearances between them.
With fewer than 100 players still directly involved in the competition, Germany has now taken over from England as the country whose clubs have the most surviving players at the 2014 World Cup, based on the clubs assigned to players in the original squad-lists on FIFA’s website.
Another of the semi-finalists, Holland, has moved up to fourth place in this list, overhauling Spain and France. Clubs from 15 countries in all have players who will fight out the decisive stages of the tournament.
Bayern Munich is the club with by far the highest number of players – nine – still involved in Brazil 2014. The German giants are followed by Chelsea and Feyenoord with five each.
Countries whose clubs have surviving players at the 2014 World Cup are, in descending order: Germany (21), England (17), Italy (13), Holland (10), Spain (8), Brazil and France (4), Argentina and Portugal (3), Turkey, Ukraine and Wales (2) and Canada, Mexico and Russia (1).
Clubs with more than one player still alive at the tournament are: Bayern Munich (9); Chelsea and Feyenoord (5); Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale and Manchester City (4); Ajax, Arsenal, Napoli, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Schalke 04 (3); and Atlético Mineiro, Benfica, Boca Juniors, Lazio, PSV Eindhoven and Swansea City (2).
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